Alcohol Most Dangerous Drug After Tobacco – Research Finds

Research by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs have found that, of all drugs, alcohol presented the most danger to it’s user and those around them.

“Overall, alcohol was the most harmful drug.”

Prof David J. Nutt, Leslie A. King, Lawrence D. Phillips and two other specialists scored 20 drugs on 16 criteria, nine of which related to the harms that a drug produces in the individual and seven to the harms to others. Drugs were scored out of 100 points, and the criteria were weighted to indicate their relative importance.

Drugs ordered by their overall harm scores, showing the separate contributions to the overall scores of harms to users and harm to others The weights after normalisation (0–100) are shown in the key (cumulative in the sense of the sum of all the normalised weights for all the criteria to users.
Fig.1 – Drugs ordered by their overall harm scores, showing the separate contributions to the overall scores of harms to users and harm to others.

 

The research, by Prof Nutt and his team, showed that heroin, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals (part scores 34, 37, and 32, respectively), whereas alcohol, heroin, and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others (46, 21, and 17, respectively). Overall, alcohol was the most harmful drug (overall harm score 72), with heroin (55) and crack cocaine (54) in second and third places.

Alcohol is more dangerous than cannabis or even heroin.
Fig.2 – Alcohol is more dangerous than cannabis or even heroin. Overall weighted scores for each of the drugs. The coloured bars indicate the part scores for each of the criteria. The key shows the normalised weight for each criterion. A higher weight indicates a larger diff erence
between the most harmful drug on the criterion and no harm.

 

Further more it was found that the findings of the research correlate poorly with present day drug classification, which is not simply based on considerations of harm.

The research were funded by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (UK)

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Prof. David J. Nutt
Prof. David J. Nutt

 

 

Source

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/abstract

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/alcohol-is-far-more-deadly-than-cannabis-former-minister-norman-baker-says-9885334.html

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